Techniques in configured grant uplink transmission in new radio (nr) systems operating in unlicensed spectrum

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of the present disclosure describe methods, apparatuses, storage media, and systems for configuring, transmitting, and receiving configured grant uplink transmissions. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/509,847, filed Jul. 12, 2019, entitled “Techniques in ConfiguredGrant Uplink Transmission in New Radio (NR) Systems Operating inUnlicensed Spectrum,” which claims priority to U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 62/697,857, filed Jul. 13, 2018, entitled“Activation-Deactivation and Downlink Feedback Information ForAutonomous Uplink Transmission in New Radio Systems Operating onUnlicensed Spectrum,” and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No.62/697,858, filed Jul. 13, 2018, entitled “UCI For Autonomous UplinkTransmission in New Radio Systems Operating on Unlicensed Spectrum,” allof which are hereby incorporated by references in their entirety.

FIELD

Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to the technicalfield of wireless communications.

BACKGROUND

The background description provided herein is for the purpose ofgenerally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of thepresently named inventors, to the extent it is described in thisbackground section, as well as aspects of the description that may nototherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neitherexpressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the presentdisclosure. Unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches describedin this section are not prior art to the claims in the presentdisclosure and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in thissection.

With significantly increased number of mobile devices joining variouswireless networks and needs for larger bandwidth, lower latency, andhigher data rates in general, spectrum resource has become one of thelimiting factors in wireless innovations and developments. One possiblesolution is to operate cellular devices on unlicensed spectrum viaLicensed-Assisted Access (LAA), which expands the system bandwidth byutilizing the flexible carrier aggregation (CA) framework introduced bythe LTE-Advanced system. In New Radio (NR) communications, operations inunlicensed or shared spectrum may also be beneficial as well as in LongTerm Evolution (LTE) and like communications. Aspects of NR-basedoperation in unlicensed spectrum include:

-   -   1. Physical channels inheriting the choices of duplex mode,        waveform, carrier bandwidth, subcarrier spacing, frame        structure, and physical layer design made as part of the NR        study and avoiding unnecessary divergence with decisions made in        the NR WI        -   Consider unlicensed bands both below and above 6 GHz, up to            52.6 GHz        -   Consider unlicensed bands above 52.6 GHz to the extent that            waveform design principles remain unchanged with respect to            below 52.6 GHz bands        -   Consider similar forward compatibility principles made in            the NR WI    -   2. Initial access, channel access. Scheduling/hybrid automatic        repeat request (HARD), and mobility including        connected/inactive/idle mode operation and radio-link        monitoring/failure    -   3. Coexistence methods within NR-based and between NR-based        operation in unlicensed and LTE-based LAA and with other        incumbent RATs in accordance with regulatory requirements in        e.g., 5 GHz, 37 GHz, 60 GHz bands        -   Coexistence methods already defined for 5 GHz band in            LTE-based LAA context should be assumed as the baseline for            5 GHz operation. Enhancements in 5 GHz over these methods            should not be precluded. NR-based operation in unlicensed            spectrum should not impact deployed Wi-Fi services (data,            video and voice services) more than an additional Wi-Fi            network on the same carrier.

One of the challenges in designing such a system is that this systemneeds to maintain fair coexistence with other incumbent technologies. Inaccordance, some restrictions may be taken into account depending onparticular band(s) in which the system may operate. For instance, ifoperating in a 5 GHz band, a listen before talk (LBT) procedure needs tobe performed to acquire the medium before a transmission can occur. Insuch a case, the scheduled uplink (UL) performance may be greatlydegraded due to the “quadruple” contention for a user equipment (UE) toaccess the UL, which is that, 1) UE to send scheduling request (SR), 2)LBT performed at the base station before sending UL grant (especially inthe case of self-carrier scheduling), 3) UE scheduling (internalcontention amongst UEs associated with the same base station) and 4) LBTperformed only by the scheduled UE. Further, the four necessarysubframes for processing delay between a UL grant and a physical uplinkshared channel (PUSCH) transmission represent an additional performanceconstraint.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments will be readily understood by the following detaileddescription in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. To facilitatethis description, like reference numerals designate like structuralelements. Embodiments are illustrated by way of example and not by wayof limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 schematically illustrates an example of a network comprising auser equipment (UE) and an access node (AN) in a wireless network, inaccordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 2 illustrates example components of a device in accordance withvarious embodiments.

FIG. 3A illustrates an operation flow/algorithmic structure tofacilitate a process of activation/deactivation of configured grant (CG)operation by a UE in an NR network operating in an unlicensed spectrum,in accordance with various embodiments. FIG. 3B illustrates theoperation flow/algorithmic structure to facilitate the process of theactivation/deactivation of CG from a base-station perspective in the NRnetwork operating in an unlicensed spectrum, in accordance with variousembodiments.

FIGS. 4-6 illustrate various examples of uplink control information(UCI) mapping onto a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) in the CGtransmission in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 7 illustrates hardware resources in accordance with someembodiments.

FIG. 8 illustrates example interfaces of baseband circuitry inaccordance with some embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following detailed description, reference is made to theaccompanying drawings that form a part hereof wherein like numeralsdesignate like parts throughout, and in which is shown by way ofillustration embodiments that may be practiced. It is to be understoodthat other embodiments may be utilized and structural or logical changesmay be made without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.Therefore, the following detailed description is not to be taken in alimiting sense.

Various operations may be described as multiple discrete actions oroperations in turn, in a manner that is most helpful in understandingthe claimed subject matter. However, the order of description should notbe construed as to imply that these operations are necessarily orderdependent. In particular, these operations may not be performed in theorder of presentation. Operations described may be performed in adifferent order than the described embodiment. Various additionaloperations may be performed and/or described operations may be omittedin additional embodiments.

For the purposes of the present disclosure, the phrases “A or B” and “Aand/or B” mean (A), (B), or (A and B). For the purposes of the presentdisclosure, the phrases “A, B, or C” and “A, B, and/or C” mean (A), (B),(C), (A and B), (A and C), (B and C), or (A, B, and C).

The description may use the phrases “in an embodiment,” or “inembodiments,” which may each refer to one or more of the same ordifferent embodiments. Furthermore, the terms “comprising,” “including,”“having,” and the like, as used with respect to embodiments of thepresent disclosure, are synonymous.

As used herein, the term “circuitry” may refer to, be part of, orinclude any combination of integrated circuits (for example, afield-programmable gate array (FPGA), an application specific integratedcircuit (ASIC), etc.), discrete circuits, combinational logic circuits,system on a chip (SOC), system in a package (SiP), that provides thedescribed functionality. In some embodiments, the circuitry may executeone or more software or firmware modules to provide the describedfunctions. In some embodiments, circuitry may include logic, at leastpartially operable in hardware.

As used herein, the term “configured grant (CG) UL transmission” mayrefer to, be part of, or include a UL transmission without grant fromanchored base station. Further, “autonomous UL transmission,”“grant-free UL transmission,” “grantless UL transmission (GUL),” and “ULtransmission without dynamic grant” are used interchangeably throughoutthe discussions herein.

As earlier discussed, a CG UL transmission may improve or mitigate theimpact caused by the quadruple contention for a UE to access a ULtransmission in an unlicensed spectrum. Accordingly, an activation anddeactivation of the CG UL may be needed to activate and/or deactivatethe CG in the NR network operating in an unlicensed spectrum. Agrant-free transmission for New Radio (NR) operating on unlicensedspectrum may address the above-mentioned concerns. In the grant-freetransmission for NR operating on unlicensed spectrum, new techniques maybe required in handling activation/deactivation of CG UL transmissionand other related solutions in this regard. Various embodiments hereinaddresses how the CG UL may be activated and/or deactivated andcorresponding acknowledgement of the activation/deactivation of the CGUL, to avoid or reduce any mismatch and/or improve system performance.

Embodiments described herein may include, for example, apparatuses,methods, and storage media for activating and/or deactivating a CG ULof, or related to, NR operations in an unlicensed spectrum as well as adesign for downlink feedback information (DFI)-downlink controlinformation (DCI) that is used to carry feedback information related tothe UL transmissions.

FIG. 1 schematically illustrates an example wireless network 100(hereinafter “network 100”) in accordance with various embodimentsherein. The network 100 may include a UE 105 in wireless communicationswith an AN 110. In some embodiments, the network 100 may be an NRnetwork operating in an unlicensed spectrum. The UE 105 may beconfigured to connect, for example, to be communicatively coupled, withthe AN 110. In this example, the connection 112 is illustrated as an airinterface to enable communicative coupling, and can be consistent withcellular communications protocols such as a 5G NR protocol operating atmmWave and/or sub-6 GHz, a NR in unlicensed spectrum (NR-U), aListen-before-Talk (LBT) protocol, a code-division multiple access(CDMA) network protocol, a Push-to-Talk (PTT) protocol, and the like.

When operating in unlicensed radio frequency spectrum bands, wirelessdevices such as the AN 110 and UE 105 may employ LBT procedures toensure the channel is clear before transmitting data. In some cases,operations in unlicensed bands may be based on a carrier aggregation(CA) configuration in conjunction with CCs operating in a licensed band.Operations in unlicensed spectrum may include DL transmissions, ULtransmissions, or both. Duplexing in unlicensed spectrum may be based onfrequency division duplexing (FDD), time division duplexing (TDD) or acombination of both. Additionally or alternatively, a grant-free ULtransmission may be used in the unlicensed spectrum to avoid quadruplecontention.

The UE 105 is illustrated as a smartphone (for example, a handheldtouchscreen mobile computing device connectable to one or more cellularnetworks), but may also comprise any mobile or non-mobile computingdevices, such as a Personal Data Assistant (PDA), pager, laptopcomputer, desktop computer, wireless handset, customer premisesequipment (CPE), fixed wireless access (FWA) device, vehicle mounted UEor any computing device including a wireless communications interface.In some embodiments, the UE 105 can comprise an Internet of Things (IoT)UE, which can comprise a network access layer designed for low-power IoTapplications utilizing short-lived UE connections. An IoT UE can utilizetechnologies such as narrowband IoT (NB-IoT), machine-to-machine (M2M)or machine-type communications (MTC) for exchanging data with an MTCserver or device via a public land mobile network (PLMN),Proximity-Based Service (ProSe) or device-to-device (D2D) communication,sensor networks, or IoT networks. The M2M or MTC exchange of data may bea machine-initiated exchange of data. An NB-IoT/MTC network describesinterconnecting NB-IoT/MTC UEs, which may include uniquely identifiableembedded computing devices (within the Internet infrastructure), withshort-lived connections. The NB-IoT/MTC UEs may execute backgroundapplications (for example, keep-alive message, status updates, locationrelated services, etc.).

The AN 110 can enable or terminate the connection 112. The AN 110 can bereferred to as a base station (BS), NodeB, evolved-NodeB (eNB),Next-Generation NodeB (gNB or ng-gNB), NG-RAN node, cell, serving cell,neighbor cell, and so forth, and can comprise ground stations (forexample, terrestrial access points) or satellite stations providingcoverage within a geographic area.

The AN 110 can be the first point of contact for the UE 105. In someembodiments, the AN 110 can fulfill various logical functions including,but not limited to, radio network controller (RNC) functions such asradio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resourcemanagement and data packet scheduling, and mobility management.

In some embodiments, a downlink resource grid can be used for downlinktransmissions from the AN 110 to the UE 105, while uplink transmissionscan utilize similar techniques. The grid can be a time-frequency grid,called a resource grid or time-frequency resource grid, which is thephysical resource in the downlink in each slot. Such a time-frequencyplane representation is a common practice for orthogonal frequencydivision multiplexing (OFDM) systems, which makes it intuitive for radioresource allocation. Each column and each row of the resource gridcorresponds to one OFDM symbol and one OFDM subcarrier, respectively.The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to oneslot in a radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit in a resourcegrid is denoted as a resource element. Each resource grid comprises anumber of resource blocks, which describe the mapping of certainphysical channels to resource elements. Each resource block comprises acollection of resource elements; in the frequency domain, this mayrepresent the smallest quantity of resources that currently can beallocated. There are several different physical downlink channels thatare conveyed using such resource blocks.

The physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) may carry user data andhigher-layer signaling to the UE 105. The physical downlink controlchannel (PDCCH) may carry information about the transport format andresource allocations related to the PDSCH channel, among other things.It may also inform the UE 105 about the transport format, resourceallocation, and hybrid automatic repeat request (HARM) informationrelated to the uplink shared channel. Typically, downlink scheduling(assigning control and shared channel resource blocks to the UE 105within a cell) may be performed at the AN 110 based on channel qualityinformation fed back from any of the UE 105. The downlink resourceassignment information may be sent on the PDCCH used for (for example,assigned to) the UE 105.

The PDCCH may use control channel elements (CCEs) to convey the controlinformation. Before being mapped to resource elements, the PDCCHcomplex-valued symbols may first be organized into quadruplets, whichmay then be permuted using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching.Each PDCCH may be transmitted using one or more of these CCEs, whereeach CCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elementsknown as resource element groups (REGs). Four Quadrature Phase ShiftKeying (QPSK) symbols may be mapped to each REG. The PDCCH can betransmitted using one or more CCEs, depending on the size of thedownlink control information (DCI) and the channel condition.

Some embodiments may use concepts for resource allocation for controlchannel information that are an extension of the above-describedconcepts. For example, some embodiments may utilize an enhanced physicaldownlink control channel (ePDCCH) that uses PDSCH resources for controlinformation transmission. The ePDCCH may be transmitted using one ormore enhanced control channel elements (ECCEs). Similar to the above,each ECCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elementsknown as enhanced resource element groups (EREGs). An ECCE may haveother numbers of EREGs in some situations.

As shown in FIG. 1, the UE 105 may include millimeter wave communicationcircuitry grouped according to functions. The UE 105 may includeprotocol processing circuitry 115, which may implement one or more oflayer operations related to medium access control (MAC), radio linkcontrol (RLC), packet data convergence protocol (PDCP), radio resourcecontrol (RRC) and non-access stratum (NAS). The protocol processingcircuitry 115 may include one or more processing cores (not shown) toexecute instructions and one or more memory structures (not shown) tostore program and data information.

The UE 105 may further include digital baseband circuitry 125, which mayimplement physical layer (PHY) functions including one or more of HARQfunctions, scrambling and/or descrambling, coding and/or decoding, layermapping and/or de-mapping, modulation symbol mapping, received symboland/or bit metric determination, multi-antenna port pre-coding and/ordecoding, which may include one or more of space-time, space-frequencyor spatial coding, reference signal generation and/or detection,preamble sequence generation and/or decoding, synchronization sequencegeneration and/or detection, control channel signal blind decoding, andother related functions.

The UE 105 may further include transmit circuitry 135, receive circuitry145, radio frequency (RF) circuitry 155, and RF front end (RFFE) 165,which may include or connect to one or more antenna panels 175.

In some embodiments, RF circuitry 155 may include multiple parallel RFchains or branches for one or more of transmit or receive functions;each chain or branch may be coupled with one antenna panel 175.

In some embodiments, the protocol processing circuitry 115 may includeone or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) to providecontrol functions for the digital baseband circuitry 125 (or simply,“baseband circuitry 125”), transmit circuitry 135, receive circuitry145, radio frequency circuitry 155, RFFE 165, and one or more antennapanels 175.

A UE reception may be established by and via the one or more antennapanels 175, RFFE 165, RF circuitry 155, receive circuitry 145, digitalbaseband circuitry 125, and protocol processing circuitry 115. The oneor more antenna panels 175 may receive a transmission from the AN 110 byreceive-beamforming signals received by a plurality of antennas/antennaelements of the one or more antenna panels 175. Further detailsregarding the UE 105 architecture are illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 7-8.The transmission from the AN 110 may be transmit-beamformed by antennasof the AN 110. In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 125 maycontain both the transmit circuitry 135 and the receive circuitry 145.In other embodiments, the baseband circuitry 125 may be implemented inseparate chips or modules, for example, one chip including the transmitcircuitry 135 and another chip including the receive circuitry 145.

Similar to the UE 105, the AN 110 may include mmWave/sub-mmWavecommunication circuitry grouped according to functions. The AN 110 mayinclude protocol processing circuitry 120, digital baseband circuitry130 (or simply, “baseband circuitry 130”), transmit circuitry 140,receive circuitry 150, RF circuitry 160, RFFE 170, and one or moreantenna panels 180.

A UL and/or DL transmission may be established by and via the protocolprocessing circuitry 120, digital baseband circuitry 130, transmitcircuitry 140, RF circuitry 160, RFFE 170, and one or more antennapanels 180. The one or more antenna panels 180 may transmit a signal byforming a transmit beam and or receive a signal by forming a receivingbeam.

FIG. 2 illustrates example components of a device 200 in accordance withsome embodiments. In contrast to FIG. 1, FIG. 2 illustrates examplecomponents of the UE 105 or the AN 110 from a receiving and/ortransmitting function point of view, and it may not include all of thecomponents described in FIG. 1. In some embodiments, the device 200 mayinclude application circuitry 202, baseband circuitry 204, RF circuitry206, RFFE circuitry 208, and a plurality of antennas 210 together atleast as shown. The baseband circuitry 204 may be similar to andsubstantially interchangeable with the baseband circuitry 125 in someembodiments. The plurality of antennas 210 may constitute one or moreantenna panels for beamforming. The components of the illustrated device200 may be included in a UE or an AN. In some embodiments, the device200 may include fewer elements (for example, a cell may not utilize theapplication circuitry 202, and instead include a processor/controller toprocess IP data received from an EPC). In some embodiments, the device200 may include additional elements such as, for example, amemory/storage, display, camera, sensor, or input/output (I/O)interface. In other embodiments, the components described below may beincluded in more than one device (for example, said circuitry may beseparately included in more than one device for Cloud-RAN (C-RAN)implementations).

The application circuitry 202 may include one or more applicationprocessors. For example, the application circuitry 202 may includecircuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core ormulti-core processors. The processor(s) may include any combination ofgeneral-purpose processors and dedicated processors (for example,graphics processors, application processors, etc.). The processors maybe coupled with or may include memory/storage and may be configured toexecute instructions stored in the memory/storage to enable variousapplications or operating systems to run on the device 200. In someembodiments, processors of application circuitry 202 may process IP datapackets received from an EPC.

The baseband circuitry 204 may include circuitry such as, but notlimited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. Thebaseband circuitry 204 may be similar to and substantiallyinterchangeable with the baseband circuitry 125 and the basebandcircuitry 130 in some embodiments. The baseband circuitry 204 mayinclude one or more baseband processors or control logic to processbaseband signals received from a receive signal path of the RF circuitry206 and to generate baseband signals for a transmit signal path of theRF circuitry 206. Baseband circuitry 204 may interface with theapplication circuitry 202 for generation and processing of the basebandsignals and for controlling operations of the RF circuitry 206. Forexample, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 may include athird generation (3G) baseband processor 204A, a fourth generation (4G)baseband processor 204B, a fifth generation (5G) baseband processor204C, or other baseband processor(s) 204D for other existinggenerations, generations in development or to be developed in the future(for example, second generation (2G), sixth generation (6G), etc.). Thebaseband circuitry 204 (for example, one or more of baseband processors204A-D) may handle various radio control functions that enablecommunication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuitry 206.In other embodiments, some or all of the functionality of basebandprocessors 204A-D may be included in modules stored in the memory 204Gand executed via a central processing unit (CPU) 204E. The radio controlfunctions may include, but are not limited to, signalmodulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radio frequency shifting,etc. In some embodiments, modulation/demodulation circuitry of thebaseband circuitry 204 may include Fast-Fourier Transform (FFT),precoding, or constellation mapping/demapping functionality. In someembodiments, encoding/decoding circuitry of the baseband circuitry 204may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi, or LowDensity Parity Check (LDPC) encoder/decoder functionality. Embodimentsof modulation/demodulation and encoder/decoder functionality are notlimited to these examples and may include other suitable functionalityin other embodiments.

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 may include one or moreaudio digital signal processor(s) (DSP) 204F. The audio DSP(s) 204F mayinclude elements for compression/decompression and echo cancellation andmay include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments.Components of the baseband circuitry may be suitably combined in asingle chip, in a single chipset, or disposed on a same circuit board insome embodiments. In some embodiments, some or all of the constituentcomponents of the baseband circuitry 204 and the application circuitry202 may be implemented together such as, for example, on a SOC.

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 may provide forcommunication compatible with one or more radio technologies. Forexample, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 may supportcommunication with an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network(E-UTRAN) or other wireless metropolitan area networks (WMAN), awireless local area network (WLAN), a wireless personal area network(WPAN), an NR network, an NR-U network. Embodiments in which thebaseband circuitry 204 is configured to support radio communications ofmore than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-modebaseband circuitry.

RF circuitry 206 may enable communication with wireless networks usingmodulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. Invarious embodiments, the RF circuitry 206 may include one or moreswitches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate the communication withthe wireless network. RF circuitry 206 may include receiver circuitry206A, which may include circuitry to down-convert RF signals receivedfrom the RFFE circuitry 208 and provide baseband signals to the basebandcircuitry 204. RF circuitry 206 may also include transmitter circuitry206B, which may include circuitry to up-convert baseband signalsprovided by the baseband circuitry 204 and provide RF output signals tothe RFFE circuitry 208 for transmission.

In some embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input basebandsignals may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of theembodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternateembodiments, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signalsmay be digital baseband signals. In these alternate embodiments, the RFcircuitry 206 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) anddigital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry and the baseband circuitry204 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RFcircuitry 206.

In some dual-mode embodiments, a separate radio integrated circuit (IC)circuitry may be provided for processing signals for each spectrum,although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

RFFE circuitry 208 may include a receive signal path, which may includecircuitry configured to operate on RF beams received from one or moreantennas 210. The RF beams may be transmit beams formed and transmittedby the AN 110 while operating in mmWave or sub-mmWave frequency rang.The RFFE circuitry 208 coupled with the one or more antennas 210 mayreceive the transmit beams and proceed them to the RF circuitry 206 forfurther processing. RFFE circuitry 208 may also include a transmitsignal path, which may include circuitry configured to amplify signalsfor transmission provided by the RF circuitry 206 for transmission byone or more of the antennas 210, with or without beamforming. In variousembodiments, the amplification through transmit or receive signal pathsmay be done solely in the RF circuitry 206, solely in the RFFE circuitry208, or in both the RF circuitry 206 and the RFFE circuitry 208.

In some embodiments, the RFFE circuitry 208 may include a TX/RX switchto switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The RFFEcircuitry 208 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signalpath. The receive signal path of the RFFE circuitry 208 may include alow noise amplifier (LNA) to amplify received RF beams and provide theamplified received RF signals as an output (for example, to the RFcircuitry 206). The transmit signal path of the RFFE circuitry 208 mayinclude a power amplifier (PA) to amplify input RF signals (for example,provided by RF circuitry 206), and one or more filters to generate RFsignals for beamforming and subsequent transmission (for example, by oneor more of the one or more antennas 210).

Processors of the application circuitry 202 and processors of thebaseband circuitry 204 may be used to execute elements of one or moreinstances of a protocol stack. For example, processors of the basebandcircuitry 204, alone or in combination, may be used to execute Layer 3,Layer 2, or Layer 1 functionality, while processors of the applicationcircuitry 202 may utilize data (for example, packet data) received fromthese layers and further execute Layer 4 functionality (for example,transmission communication protocol (TCP) and user datagram protocol(UDP) layers). As referred to herein, Layer 3 may comprise a radioresource control (RRC) layer, described in further detail below. Asreferred to herein, Layer 2 may comprise a medium access control (MAC)layer, a radio link control (RLC) layer, and a packet data convergenceprotocol (PDCP) layer, described in further detail below. As referred toherein, Layer 1 may comprise a physical (PHY) layer of a UE/AN,described in further detail below.

There may be two configured grant mechanisms for an NR operation inunlicensed spectrum, Type 1 and Type 2. Type 1 may be based on an RRCconfiguration. Type 2 may be based on an RRC configuration and a Layer 1(L1) activation and deactivation. Type 1 mechanism may have an advantagethat the UE 105 can start a grant-free transmission as the correspondingRRC configured, since there is no waiting for L1 activation message.Meanwhile, Type 2 mechanism may be more flexible in indicating,including but not limited to, desired time and/or frequency domainresources, UE-specific demodulation reference signal (DMRS)configurations, and modulation coding scheme (MCS)/transport block size(TBS) values. Further, a network may have better controllability withType 2 in terms of managing a set of autonomous UEs for uplinktransmission.

A downlink control information (DCI) and/or downlink feedbackinformation (DFI) may be required in a Type 2 configured grant inactivating or deactivating the grant-free UL transmission feature. A gNBmay configure or generate a DCI and/or DFI message or a messageincluding the DCI and/or DFI to activate/deactivate the AUL transmissionfor a UE. Various embodiments of new DCI and/or DFI are described asfollows:

I. Format 0_0 and Format 0_1

In some embodiments, the DCI format may use the DCI format 0_0 and/orDCI format 0_1 from the legacy NR and assign CG ULactivation/deactivation information accordingly. Table 1 provides asummary of the fields of the DCI format 0_0 and DCI format 0_1, whereN_(RB) ^(UL,BWP) may indicate the size of the active UL bandwidth partin case DCI format 0 0 is monitored in a UE specific search space andsatisfy the following conditions:

-   -   the total number of different DCI sizes monitored per slot is no        more than 4 for the cell    -   the total number of different DCI sizes with C-RNTI monitored        per slot is no more than 3 for the cell        Otherwise, N_(RB) ^(UL,BWP) may indicate the size of the initial        UL bandwidth.

TABLE 1 Summary of DCI format 0_0 or 0_1 Fields DCI format 0_0 (bits)DCI format 0_1 (bits) Identifier for DCI formats 1 1 Frequency for DCIformats [log₂(N_(RB) ^(UL,BWP)+1)/2)] [N_(RB) ^(UL,BWP)/P] if resourceallocation type 0 [_(log2) (N_(RB) ^(UL, BWP) + 1)/2)] if resourceallocation type 1, or for both resource allocation _(max)([log₂(N_(RB)^(UL,BWP)(N_(RB) ^(UL,BWP) + 1)/2)], [N_(RB) ^(UL,BWP) / P]) + 1 Timedomain resource assignment 4 1, 2, 3, or 4 Frequency hopping flag 1 0 or1 Modulation and coding scheme 5 5 New data indicator 1 1 Redundancyversion 2 2 HARQ process number 4 4 TPC command for scheduled 2 2 PUSCHUL/SUL indicator 0 or 1 0 or 1 Carrier indicator — 0 or 3 Bandwidth partindicator — 0, 1, or 2 VRB-to-PRB mapping — 0 or 1 1^(st) downlinkassignment index — 1 or 2 2^(nd) downlink assignment index — 0 or 2 SRSresource indicator — $\quad\begin{matrix}\left\lbrack {\log_{2}\left( {\sum\limits_{k = 1}^{L_{\max}}\;\left( N_{k}^{SRS} \right)} \right)} \right\rbrack \\{{or}\;\left\lbrack {\log_{2}\left( N_{{srs})} \right\rbrack} \right.}\end{matrix}$ Precoding information and number — 0, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 oflayers Antenna ports — 2, 3, 4, or 5 SRS request — 2 CSI request — 0, 1,2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 CBG transmission information — 0, 2, 4, 6 or 8PTRS-DMRS association — 0 or 2 beta_offset indicator — 0 or 2 DMRSsequence initialization — 0 or 1

In some embodiments, the same format used for DCI in CGactivation/deactivation may be used for the DFI as well. Thus, anindicator or flag may be used to distinguish the DCI and the DFI orDFI-DCI. In one example, the field “identifier for DCI formats” of theDCI format 0_0 and/or DCI format 0_1 may indicate whether thecorresponding DCI format 0_0 and/or DCI format 0_1 is used foractivation/deactivation DCI or HARQ feedback (DFI-DCI). For example, a“1” in the field “identifier for DCI formats” may indicate that this isfor DCI activation/deactivation, and a “0” in the field “identifier forDCI formats” may indicate that this is for HARQ feedback.

In some embodiments, when the DCI format 0_0 and/or DCI format 0_1 areused for indicating CG activation/deactivation, further coding may beused to indicate respective activation and deactivation, as shown as anexample in Tables 2(a) and (b).

TABLE 2(a) DCI coding for activation DCI format 0_0/0_1 HARQ processnumber set to all ‘0’s Redundancy version set to ‘00’

TABLE 2 b DCI codin for deactivation DCI format 0_0 DCI format 0_1 HARQprocess number set to all ‘0’s set to all ‘0’s Redundancy version set to‘00’ set to ‘00’ Modulation and coding set to all ‘1’s set to all ‘1’sscheme Resource block assignment set to all ‘Ps set to all ‘PsFurther, for the DCI format 0 0, one or more of the following fields ofthe DCI format 0 0 may be used:

-   -   Modulation and coding scheme    -   TPC command for scheduled PUSCH        while other fields may be padded with zeros or ones to indicate        activation or deactivation, respectively. For the DCI format        0_1, one or more of the following fields of the DCI format 0_1        may be used:    -   Modulation and coding scheme    -   TPC command for scheduled PUSCH    -   Carrier indicator    -   Bandwidth part indicator    -   VRB-to-PRB mapping    -   Precoding information and number of layers    -   Antenna ports    -   CBG transmission information    -   PTRS-DMRS association    -   beta offset indicator    -   DMRS sequence initialization    -   CSI request    -   SRS request    -   SRS resource indicator        while other fields may be padded with zeros or ones to indicate        activation or deactivation, respectively. In embodiments, one or        more of the fields listed above may be RRC configured, and/or        omitted to be transmitted in the DCI.

In some embodiments, if format 0 0 and/or format 0 1 are used foractivation/deactivation of the grant-free UL transmission, one or moreof the following fields may be included:

-   -   X bits to indicate the frequency domain resources (i.e,        interlaces) for grant-free UL transmission:        -   the indication of the frequency domain resources may be of a            bitmap;        -   the indication of the frequency domain resources may be            provided as an offset from the lower or higher PRB within            the bandwidth used.        -   the indication of the frequency domain resources may be            provided as the indices of the interlace(s) that can be used            for grant-free UL transmission.        -   The indication of the frequency domain resources may be a            set of the resource blocks that can be used for grant-free            UL transmission.    -   Y bits to indicate the time-domain resources for grant-free UL        transmission operation:        -   The indication of the time domain resources may be of a            bitmap, which may indicate the slots/symbols that can be            used for grant-free UL transmission. The bitmap may have a            length of X bits, and each bit may indicate whether a            specific time-domain resource can be used, and the            granularity may be at symbols level, at slot level or radio            frame level.        -   The time domain resources available for grant-free UL            transmission may be derived from a tuple of parameters            (i.e., {periodicity, offset/starting position, and            duration}). In this case, the “offset/starting” may indicate            the exact starting point from where the time domain            resources are allowed for GUL begins, the “duration” may            indicate the consecutive resources allowed for GUL starting            from the “offset/starting” point, and the “periodicity” may            indicate the period after which this defined window of            available resources for GUL transmissions is repeated.

In some embodiments, physical resources in time and frequency domainsmay be configured by RRC signaling. Further, a bitmap in the DCI for anactivation of Type 2 CG UL transmission may be used to indicate whethera subset or a full set of configured physical resources can be used forthe CG UL transmission. Note that the physical resources may be locatedin the same or different slots, component carriers, or bandwidthportions (e.g., in different 20 MHz bandwidths that are located indifferent portions of a wide system bandwidth that is larger than 20MHz).

In some embodiments, for Type 1 CG UL transmission, physical resourcesin time and frequency domains may be configured by RRC configurations.Depending on the outcome of an LBT, UE may select one of the configuredmultiple time/frequency resources for grant-free uplink transmission.

In some embodiments, the frequency-domain resources for grant-free ULtransmission may be indicated via activation/deactivation DCI, and thetime-domain resources may be configured via RRC.

In some embodiments regarding a new DFI-DCI format, the payload size ofthe DCI Format 0_0 and/or DCI Format 0_1 in Table 1 may be maintained,and some or all of the fields of the DCI Format 0_0 and/or DCI Format0_1 may be to carry or indicate one or more following items ofinformation:

-   -   Bitmap with one HARQ-Acknowledgement (ACK) bit per CG configured        HARQ process per TB (Z bits per TB, where Z is the total number        of HARQ process IDs, e.g., Z=16).    -   Transmit Power Control (TPC) command for PUSCH (2 bits)    -   Modulation and coding scheme (5 bits)    -   Carrier indicator (if format 0_1 is used)    -   Bandwidth part indicator (if format 0_1 is used)    -   Antenna ports (if format 0_1 is used)    -   DMRS sequence initialization (if format 0_1 is used)        Note that in case of a grouped HARQ-ACK feedback for a group of        UEs, the order of HARQ-ACK feedback for a given UE may be        configured by an RRC signaling in a UE specific manner. After        receiving the DFI-DCI, UE may derive the HARQ-ACK feedback based        on the configured order and corresponding HARQ-ACK field.

In embodiments, in order to maintain the same size between theactivation/deactivation DCI and DFI-DCI, the DFI-DCI may be padded withall zeros or all ones to have the same size as theactivation/deactivation DCI.

In some embodiments, in order to reduce or prevent additional hypothesistesting, the cyclic redundancy check (CRC) of the DCI foractivation/deactivation and DFI information may be masked with a newcommon radio network temporary identifier (RNTI), which may be named asAUL cell RNTI (AUL-C-RNTI). The AUL-C-RNTI may be configured by higherlayers via NR minimum system information (MSI), NR remaining minimumsystem information (RMSI), NR other system information (OSI) or RRCsignaling.

In some embodiments, the RNTI may be the same for bothactivation/deactivation DCI and for the DFI-DCI. Alternatively, the newRNTI may be UE specific, or group specific. In some embodiments, theRNTI used for DCI and/or DFI-DCI may be a semi-persistence scheduling(SPS)C-RNTI or C-RNTI.

II. Clean Slate Design

In some embodiments, a new DCI format that is different from the DCIFormat 0 0 and DCI Format 0_1 may be used to activate/deactivate agrant-free UL transmission. In some embodiments, the DCI format foractivation/deactivation and the DCI-DFI format for HARQ-ACK feedback mayhave the same size to reduce complexity for UE and/or reduce relatedhypothesis testing. Accordingly, a flag or indicator may be needed todistinguish those two.

In some embodiments, one or more of the fields in table 3(a) may be usedin the DCI for the activation/deactivation of CG UL transmission.

TABLE 3(a) New DCI format for Activation/Deactivation DCI format Fields(bits) Interpretation Flag 1 Time domain resources Y Frequency domainresources X Modulation and coding scheme 5 TPC command for scheduledPUSCH 2 Carrier indicator 0 or 3 bits Bandwidth part indicator 0, 1, or2 Precoding information and number 0, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 of layers Antennaports 2, 3, 4, or 5 SRS request 2 CSI request 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 CBGtransmission information 0, 2, 4, 6, or 8 PTRS-DMRS association 0 or 2DMRS sequence initialization 0 or 1 AUL Activation/Deactivation 1 ormore

In some embodiments, one or more of the fields in table 3(b) may be usedin the DCI for carrying downlink feedback information.

TABLE 3 b New DCI format for Activation/Deactivation DCI format Fields(bits) Interpretation Flag 1 HARQ bitmap Z Modulation and coding scheme5 TPC command for scheduled PUSCH 2 Carrier indicator 0 or 3 bitsBandwidth part indicator 0, 1, or 2 Precoding information and 0 2 3 4 5or 6 number of layers Antenna ports 2, 3, 4, or 5 SRS request 2 CSIrequest 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 CBG transmission information 0, 2, 4, 6,or 8 PTRS-DMRS association 0 or 2 DMRS sequence initialization 0 or 1Padding 1 or more

In some embodiments, the CRC of the new DCIs used foractivation/deactivation and DFI information may be masked with a newcommon RNTI, named AUL-C-RNTI. Alternatively, the new RNTI may be UEspecific, or group specific. In embodiments, the RNTI used for these twonew DCIs can be an SPS C-RNTI or a C-RNTI.

FIG. 3A illustrates an operation flow/algorithmic structure 300 tofacilitate a process of activation/deactivation of CG UL transmission bythe UE 105 in an NR network operating in an unlicensed spectrum, inaccordance with various embodiments. The operation flow/algorithmicstructure 300 may be performed by the UE 105 or circuitry thereof.

The operation flow/algorithmic structure 300 may include, at 310,decoding an activation or deactivation grant of a DCI in an NR L1message, based on reception of the NR L1 message. The NR L1 message maybe generated by a gNB in an NR network. The gNB may be the same as orsubstantially similar to the AN 110. The UE 105 may receive the NR L1message and decode the DCI of the message to detect a CG ULactivation/deactivation indicated by the DCI. The NR L1 message may betransmitted and received via NR services between the AN 110 and the UE105 in an unlicensed spectrum. The NR services may operate at afrequency of FR1 or FR2. The activation/deactivation of CG UL may beindicated by the DCI. Various formats of the DCI may be used asaddressed above. This activation/deactivation DCI may be the onlydownlink control information that carries MCS field, and/orfrequency/time resources assigned for the AUL. To avoid or reducemismatch between the assigned resources and/or MCS by the gNB and theutilized resources and/or MCS by the UE, the UE may be required to sendan acknowledgement regarding the reception of theactivation/deactivation DCI. For example, if two DCIs carry differentMCS and/or resources (frequency/time) information, and both of the DCIsare received and decoded by the UE, UE may determine its MCS andfrequency/time resources based on one DCI. Then, there may be a mismatchbetween the MCS and/or time/frequency resources used by the UE and theone assigned by the gNB but not chosen by the UE.

The operation flow/algorithmic structure 300 may further include, at320, generating a message to confirm reception of the activation ordeactivation grant, based on the decoding of the activation ordeactivation grant. The message may be generated by using one or moremedium access control (MAC) control elements (CEs). In NRcommunications, MAC CEs may serve multiple purposes in both UL MAC andDL MAC, as the MAC CEs of LTE communications do. Various valuesassociated with a logic channel identification (LCID) may indicatevarious information carried by a MAC CE. For example, Table 4illustrates an example mapping and/or indication between indexes andLCID values with regard to a DL shared channel (DL-SCH).

TABLE 4 LCID values for DL-SCH Index LCD Vah3es 00000 CCCH 00001-01010Identity of the logical channel 01011 CCCH 01100 CCCH 01101 CCCH andExtended Power Headroom Report 01110-01111 Reserved 10000 Extendedlogical channel ID field 10001 Reserved 10010 AUL confirmation (4octets) 10011 AUL confirmation (1 octet) 10100 Recommended bit ratequery 10101 SPS confirmation 10110 Truncated Sidelink BSR 10111 SidelinkBSR 11000 Dual Connectivity Power Headroom Report 11001 Extended PowerHeadroom Report 11010 Power Headroom Report 11011 C-RNTI

In some embodiments, a MAC CE may be used to confirm the reception ofthe activation/deactivation DCI. The MAC CE may be transmitted viascheduled grant UL based on the reception of the activation/deactivationDCI and/or after successfully decoding the activation/deactivation DCI.In some embodiments, the CG UL transmission may only begin after the UEsends the MAC CE in grant-based (GB) UL mode. In some embodiments, theMAC CE may be transmitted at an earliest available occasion regardlessof that the UE has data or not.

FIG. 3B illustrates an operation flow/algorithmic structure 305 tofacilitate the process of CG UL activation/deactivation by the AN 110 inan NR network operating in an unlicensed spectrum, in accordance withvarious embodiments. The operation flow/algorithmic structure 305 may beperformed by the AN 110 or circuitry thereof. The AN 110 may be a gNB inthe NR network.

The operation flow/algorithmic structure 305 may include, at 315,generating DCI to indicate an activation or deactivation grant of CG ULtransmission. The DCI may be transmitted in an NR L1 message. The NR L1message may be generated by a gNB in an NR network. The gNB may be thesame as or substantially similar to the AN 110. The UE 105 may receivethe NR L1 message and decode the DCI of the message to detect anactivation/deactivation of CG UL indicated by the DCI. Theactivation/deactivation of CG UL transmission may be indicated by theDCI. Various formats of the DCI may be used as addressed above. Thisactivation/deactivation DCI may be the only downlink control informationthat carries MCS field, and/or frequency/time resources assigned for theCG UL transmission.

The operation flow/algorithmic structure 305 may further include, at325, transmitting the DCI in an NR L1 message to a UE. The NR L1 messagemay be generated by the gNB. The NR L1 message may be transmitted andreceived via NR services between the AN 110 and the UE 105.

In some embodiments, a timer may be used to trigger or monitoractivation/deactivation DCI transmission. The gNB may not receive theacknowledgement message, and it may be because that the UE has notreceived the activation/deactivation DCI properly or due to apre-occupancy and/or busyness of the used UL channel. This timer maystart when the activation/deactivation DCI is transmitted by the gNB.The timer may stop and reset once the acknowledgement message (MAC CE)is received by the gNB in response to the activation grant. Then thetimer may restart when a (re)activation grant is sent. The eNB mayretransmit the activation/deactivation DCI upon expiration of the timer.

In some embodiments regarding the deactivation grant, the UE may send anacknowledgement of the deactivation grant to the gNB through a MAC CEtransmitted in a first scheduled UL transmission using one interlace orin a first opportunity of available UL transmission. Upon reception ofthe acknowledgement of the deactivation grant, the gNB may release theresources assigned for the CG UL transmission.

In some embodiments, acknowledgement may not be needed for deactivation,which may save one interlace with one byte MAC CE transmission. Thedeactivation grant acknowledgement may not be needed, because it may bestraightforward for the eNB to find out whether CG UL transmission isdeactivated or not for a specific UE by detecting a corresponding CG ULtransmission and/or finding a specific UE-ID in a corresponding CG-UCI.In some embodiments, if the eNB detects an AUL transmission with theUE-ID equal to the one that the eNB intends to deactivate, the gNB maytransmit the deactivation grant again.

III. Cell-Specific (SPS) RRC

In some embodiments, an alternative solution to activate and deactivatethe CG UL transmission may use a Type 1 configuration grant andconfigure the grant-free resources via RRC signaling. In someembodiments, UE may not report specific MAC UE feedback. In a legacy NR,the structure of the configured grant IE may be as follows:

-- ASN1START -- TAG-CONFIGUREDGRANTCONFIG-START ConfiguredGrantConfig::= SEQUENCE { frequencyHopping ENUMERATED {model, mode2}   OPTIONAL, -- Need S,  cg-DMRS-Configuration  DMRS-UplinkConfig,  mcs-Table ENUMERATED {qam256, sparel}  OPTIONAL, -- Need S mcs-TableTransformPrecoder  ENUMERATED {qam256, sparel}    OPTIONAL, --Need S  uci-OnPUSCH   SetupRelease { CG-UCI-OnPUSCH }, resourceAllocation  ENUMERATED { resourceAllocationTypeO,resourceAllocationTypel, dynamicSwitch },  rbg-Size ENUMERATED {config2} OPTIONAL, -- Need S  powerControlLoopToUse ENUMERATED {n0, n1}, p0-PUSCH-Alpha  P0-PUSCH-AlphaSetId,  transformPrecoder ENUMERATED{enabled}   OPTIONAL, -- Need S  nrofHARQ-Processes  INTEGER (1..16), repK  ENUMERATED {nl, n2, n4, n8},  repK-RV   ENUMERATED fs1-0231,s2-0303, s3-0000}   OPTIONAL, -- Cond RepK  periodicity  ENUMERATED {  sym2, sym7, sym1x14, sym2x14, sym4x14, sym5x14, sym8x14, sym10x14,sym16x14, sym20x14,   sym32x14, sym40x14, sym64x14, sym80x14, sym128x14,sym160x14, sym256x14, sym320x14, sym512x14,   sym640x14, sym1024x14,sym1280x14, sym2560x14, sym5120x14,   sym6, sym1x12, sym2x12, sym4x12,sym5x12, sym8x12, sym10x12, sym16x12, sym20x12, sym32x12,   sym40x12,sym64x12, sym80x12, sym128x12, sym160x12, sym256x12, sym320x12,sym512x12, sym640x12,   sym1280x12, sym2560x12   },  configuredGranTimer  INTEGER (1..64)  OPTIONAL,  Need R  rrc-ConfiguredUplinkGrant  SEQUENCE {    timeDomainOffset    INTEGER (0..5119),   timeDomainAllocation    INTEGER (0..15),    frequencyDomainAllocation    BIT STRING (SIZE(18)),   antennaPort   INTEGER(0..31),   dmrs-SeqInitialization   INTEGER (0..1) OPTIONAL, -- CondNoTransformPrecoder   precodingAndNumberOfLayers   INTEGER (0..63),  srs-ResourceIndicator   INTEGER (0..15),    mcsAndTBS   INTEGER(0..31),    frequencyHoppingOffset   INTEGER(1..maxNrofPhysicalResourceBlocks- 1)   OPTIONAL, -- Need M   pathlossReferenceIndex   INTEGER (0..maxNrofPUSCH- PathlossReferenceRSs-1),    ...   }   OPTIONAL - Need R  } CG-UCI-OnPUSCH ::= CHOICE {   Dynamic   SEQUENCE (SIZE (1..4)) OFBetaOffsets,   semi Static   BetaOffsets  } --TAG-CONFIGUREDGRANTCONFIG-STOP -- ASN1 STOP

In some embodiments, in order to allocate a set of time/frequency domainresources for CG UL transmission, some fields related to the IEConfiguredGrantConfig, which originally may be used to configure uplinktransmission without dynamic grant, may be modified as follows:

timeDomainAllocation INTEGER (0 . . . 15),

In some embodiments, the field above may be modified, and may have abitmap format. The bitmap may have a length of X bits, where X can be,for example, 40 bits. Each bit of the X bits may indicate whether aspecific time-domain resource can be used, and the granularity may be ata symbol level, slot level, or radio frame level.

frequencyDomainAllocation BIT STRING (SIZE(18)),

In some embodiments, the field above may be modified to indicate thefrequency interlaces that may be allowed for grant-free UL transmission.In some embodiments, this field may be a bitmap, where each bit mayindicate a given interlace. In some embodiments, this field may indicatethe indices of the interlace(s) that may be used for grant-free ULtransmission. In some embodiments, this field may indicate a set of theresource blocks that may be used for grant-free UL transmission. Inother embodiments, this field may indicate a subset or a set offrequency resources in the same or a different bandwidth part orcomponent carrier (e.g., in one or more different 20 MHz bandwidths in awide system bandwidth, e.g., 100 MHz).

IV. Uplink Control Information (UCI)

In a grant-free transmission, a UE may perform transmissions withoutrequiring or granting of a transmission grant to or from a base station,a suitable UCI from the UE may be dedicated to grant-free transmissions.Various embodiments herein are provided regarding UCI content andresource mapping of the UCI in grant-free transmission.

In order to efficiently operate the grant-free operation, the dependencyon timing to the HARQ process ID selection may be removed, and it may bepreferred for UE to opportunistically select one HARQ process ID from agiven set. Since the HARQ ID may not be selected by the UE, and the UEtransmission may not be scheduled, the UE may provide the HARQ processID together with its UE-ID to the gNB upon PUSCH transmission via UCI.

In NR communications, UCI may contain HARQ ACK/Non-ACK (NACK) feedback,schedule request (SR) and CSI information, and be transmitted on PUCCHor piggybacked on PUSCH. In a grant-free transmission, the UCI maycontain at least a UE-ID and HARQ process ID. Thus, a new UCI format, aswell as its transmission procedure, may be defined, such that it maycontain minimal information required by the gNB to reduce signalingoverhead.

Uplink Control Information (UCI) feedback may include HARQ-ACK bits, SRbits (and/or positive SR bits), and periodic or aperiodic Channel StateInformation (CSI). The CSI may comprise Channel Quality Indicator (CQI),precoding matrix indicator (PMI), CSI-RS resource indicator (CRI),SS/PBCH Block Resource indicator (SSBRI), layer indicator (LI), rankindicator (RI), and/or beam related information (e.g., L1-RSRP or otherlike beam information).

In some embodiments, a new UCI may be introduced for grant-freetransmission. The new UCI may be referred to as “grant-free UCP’ or“G-UCP’ or “CG-UCP’ The CG-UCI may comprise one or more of the followingfields:

-   -   AUL C-RNTI (e.g., 16 bits can be used).    -   HARQ process ID (e.g., 4 bits can be used).    -   Redundancy version (RV) (e.g., 2 or 3 bits can be used).    -   New data indicator (NDI) (e.g., 1 bit).    -   PUSCH starting symbol (e.g., 1, 2, 3 or 4 bits can be        used)—indicates the starting position of PUSCH, or whether the        first symbol of the current slot is punctured.    -   PUSCH ending symbol (e.g., 1, 2, 3 or 4 bits)—indicates the        ending position of PUSCH, or whether the last symbol of the        current slot is punctured.    -   Channel occupancy time (COT) sharing indication.    -   Number of slots from the remaining Maximum COT (MCOT) that can        be used by the gNB.    -   Priority class if UL to DL MCOT sharing is allowed.    -   Aperiodic CSI (A-CSI) indication for current PUSCH.

It is noted that the number of bits for each field may not be limited tothe listed example numbers as above, other numbers of bits for eachfield may be extended.

In some embodiments, CG-UCI may be transmitted in all the slots withinthe MCOT acquired by the grant-free UE. Or, the CG-UCI may be carried inall grant-free PUSCH transmissions.

In some embodiments, the content of the CG-UCI may be the same for allthe slots within the MCOT acquired by the grant-free UE. In someembodiments, in order to allow grant-free transmission to be more agile,of reduced complexity, and/or of reduced latencies due to LBT failures,the CG-UCI may be piggybacked on uplink data within each PUSCHtransmission.

In another embodiment, in case of repetitions of CG-UCI transmission,CG-UCI may be only transmitted in the grant-free PUSCH in the first slotwithin a repetition.

In some embodiments, a UL to DL MCOT sharing may be allowed. In such ascenario, the gNB may only be allowed to transmit PDCCH carrying DCI,and the transmission may be limited to a number of symbols, for example,two OFDM symbols for each transmission.

In other embodiments, if the UL-DL-UL sharing is not allowed, the gNBmay or may not perform LBT, depending, among other things, on a gapbetween the corresponding UL and DL. For example, in some embodiments,if the gap between the UL and DL is less than 16 microseconds (μs), thegNB may not need to perform LBT. If the gap is between 16 μs and 25 μs,the gNB may perform Type 2 channel access, which may be a 25 μs LBT, forevery DL transmission. If the gap is larger than 25 μs, the gNB mayperform Type 1 channel access.

In some embodiments, Type 1 uplink channel access procedure may notinclude channel sensing before the UE can transmit on that channel. Type2 uplink channel access procedure may include to perform CCA over ashort period. The duration of the period is fixed to be at least 25 μs.

In some embodiments, the gNB may or may not perform LBT based on aparticular gap size between the UL and DL. For example, DL transmissionmay only be allowed if the gap is not larger or equal than 25 μs. Insuch a case, the LBT requirement and channel access types may follow thesimilar procedure as mentioned in the above embodiments.

In some embodiments, DL data may be aggregated to the DCI transmitted onthe remaining MCOT, and they may be only devoted to the UE that acquiredthe MCOT. In other embodiments, both DL data and DCI may be devoted toany UE within the MCOT acquired by a specific grant-free UL UE. In someembodiments, the remaining MCOT may remain unutilized and not be sharedwith the gNB.

In some embodiment, the UE may inform the gNB about the remaining MCOTvia the CG-UCI. For example, 3 or 4 bits may be utilized to inform thegNB about the length of the remaining MCOT and another 3 or 4 bits maybe utilized to provide information regarding the end of the grant-freeUL transmission performed over the acquired MCOT. Alternatively, a totalof 3 or 4 bits may be used to jointly indicate the length of theremaining MCOT as well as the information related to the end of thegrant-free UL transmission.

In some embodiments, the remaining MCOT may be only used for DCI, andonly one bit may be used in the UCI to inform the gNB that the followingslot is the last slot for the grant-free UL burst, which may be eitherin the next slot or in a number of N slots from the current slot. Forexample, if a processing delay of 1 ms is necessary, the number of N maychange based on the numerology used. The gNB may be allowed to transmitthe DCI.

In some embodiments, the UE may only provide or indicate the end of thegrant-free UL transmission, but not need to indicate the length of theremaining COT since the gNB may only transmit the DCI through a limitednumber of OFDM symbols.

In some embodiments, CG-UCI may be multiplexed with an Uplink sharedchannel (UL-SCH) on a PUSCH. A rule or a set of rules for mapping theCG-UCI onto PUSCH may follow the mapping rules defined in NR forHARQ-ACK feedback with more than two bits of a payload size on thePUSCH. Further, the UL-SCH may be rate-matched with the CG-UCI. ThePUSCH may be used to transmit the uplink shared channel (UL-SCH) and L1and L2 control information. The UL-SCH may be the transport channel usedfor transmitting uplink data (one or more transport blocks). L1 and L2control signaling may carry HARQ acknowledgements for received downlinkshared channel (DL-SCH) blocks, channel quality reports, and schedulingrequests. An example G-UCI mapping is illustrated in FIG. 4. FIG. 4illustrates a slot 400 that includes 14 OFDM symbols of one subcarrier,which includes one resource block that includes 12 resource elements.The resource elements (REs) mapped with G-UCI 405 may be mapped asHARQ-ACK bits of the UCI and piggybacked on the PUSCH for scheduled ULtransmission. The demodulation reference signal (DM-RS) symbol 410 maybe mapped as legacy channel estimation.

FIG. 5 illustrates another example of CG-UCI mapping, in which the REsmapped with CG-UCI 505 may start from the second symbol of the slot 500.Similarly to FIG. 4, the demodulation reference signal (DM-RS) symbol510 may be mapped as legacy channel estimation.

In some embodiment, the mapping rule for CG-UCI onto PUSCH may followthe same mapping rule as defined for CSI part 1 on PUSCH. To avoid thepotential puncturing of CG-UCI in the first symbol due to LBT operation,the CG-UCI may not be transmitted on the first symbol. Further, in oneexample, when CG-UCI is mapped on PUSCH, reserved REs for 0, 1, 2 bitHARQ-ACK feedback may not be considered, which indicates that CG-UCI maybe mapped on the OFDM symbol that is right after DM-RS symbol.Alternatively, when CG-UCI is mapped on PUSCH, reserved REs for 0, 1, 2bit HARQ-ACK feedback may still be considered. In this case, UL-SCH maybe mapped on the HARQ-ACK reserved REs.

In addition, when frequency hopping is applied for PUSCH, CG-UCI may bemapped on starting from the first symbol on PUSCH in the second hop.

FIG. 6 illustrates another example of CG-UCI mapping, in which a slot600 includes 14 symbols over one subcarrier. Similarly to FIGS. 4 and 5,the demodulation reference signal (DM-RS) symbol 615 may be mapped aslegacy channel estimation.

In some embodiments, the mapping rule for CG-UCI on PUSCH may follow thesame mapping rule as defined for a union of CSI part 1 and part 2 onPUSCH. Similarly, with respect to FIG. 5, to avoid potential puncturingof CG-UCI in the first symbol due to LBT operation, CG-UCI may not betransmitted on the first symbol. Further, reserved REs for HARQ-ACKfeedback may or may not be considered in the mapping on PUSCH.

In some embodiments, the CG-UCI may be mapped from symbol #1 up tosymbol #12 (a symbol index starts from #0 within a slot), starting fromthe highest or lowest subcarrier index of the frequency resource blockavailable for CG UL transmissions. In some embodiments, symbol #0 andsymbol #13 (i.e., the first and last symbols within a slot) may not beused for CG-UCI. In some embodiments, the CG-UCI may be mapped on anumber of X symbols after the first symbol of PUSCH, where X, forexample, may be 2 or 3. In some embodiments, the UL-SCH may berate-matched around the CG-UCI on the PUSCH.

In embodiments, the number of coded modulation symbols per layer forCG-UCI transmission may be evaluated as follows:

$Q_{G - {{UCI\_}1}}^{\prime} = {\min\left\{ {\left\lceil \frac{\left( {O_{G - {UCI}} + L_{G - {UCI}}} \right) \cdot \beta_{offset}^{G - {UCI}} \cdot {\sum\limits_{l = 0}^{N_{{symb},{all}}^{PUSCH} - 1}{M_{sc}^{UCI}(l)}}}{\sum\limits_{r = 0}^{C_{{UL} - {SCH}^{- 1}}}K_{r}} \right\rceil,\mspace{20mu}\left\lceil {\alpha \cdot {\sum\limits_{l = l_{0}}^{N_{{symb},{all}}^{PUSCH} - 1}{M_{sc}^{UCI}(l)}}} \right\rceil} \right\}}$

where O_(G-UCI) is the number of CG-UCI bits, and L_(G-UCI) may indicatethe CRC bits for the CG-UCI, for example, L_(G-UCI)=16 as in legacy.β_(offset) ^(G-UCI) indicates an offset value, and a indicates a scalingcoefficient, which is configured by a higher layer, N_(symb,all)^(PUSCH) is the total number of OFDM symbols for PUSCH, including allOFDM symbols used for DMRS. C_(UL-SCH) is the number of code blocks forUL-SCH of the PUSCH transmission, and K_(r) is the r-th code block sizefor UL-SCH of the PUSCH transmission. M_(sc) ^(UCI) is the number ofresource elements that may be used for transmission of UCI in OFDMsymbol 1, for l=0, 1, 2, . . . , N_(symb,all) ^(PUSCH)−1, in the PUSCHtransmission.

In some embodiments, if the CSI part 2 is also used to map part of theCG-UCI, the number of coded modulation symbols per layer for CG-UCItransmission for the CG-UCI into the CSI part 2 RE may be evaluated asfollows:

$Q_{G - {{UCI\_}2}}^{\prime} = {\min\left\{ {\left\lceil \frac{\left( {O_{G - {UCI} - 2} + L_{G - {UCI}}} \right)\beta_{offset}^{G - {UCI}}{\sum\limits_{l = 0}^{N_{{symb},{all}}^{PUSCH} - 1}{M_{sc}^{UCI}(l)}}}{\sum\limits_{r = 0}^{C_{{UL} - {SCH} - 1}}K_{r}} \right\rceil,\mspace{40mu}{\left\lceil {\alpha \cdot {\sum\limits_{l = l_{0}}^{N_{{symb},{all}}^{PUSCH} - 1}{M_{sc}^{UCI}(l)}}} \right\rceil - Q_{G - {{UCI\_}1}}^{\prime}}} \right\}}$

where O_(G-UCI_2) is the number of CG-UCI bits mapped into the CSI part2 REs, and L_(G-UCI)=16, which indicates the CRC bits for the CG-UCI.

In some embodiments, a new parameter I_(offset) ^(G-UCI) may beintroduced which indicates the specific value of β_(offset) ^(G-UCI)I_(offset) ^(G-UCI) may be RRC signaled or dynamically indicated in theDCI for activation of grant free uplink transmission or a combinationthereof. For instance, for Type 1 configured grant uplink transmission,beta offset for CG-UCI may be configured by higher layers. For Type 2configured grant uplink transmission, a combination of RRC signaling andDCI in activation of configured grant uplink transmission may be used toindicate the beta offset value for CG-UCI. Specifically, a set of betaoffset values may be configured by RRC signaling and one field in theDCI may be used to indicate one beta offset value of the set of valuesmay be used for CG-UCI. β_(offset) ^(G-UCI) values may be the same asthose defined in legacy NR for β_(offset) ^(HARQ-ACK), and the mappingof β_(offset) ^(G-UCI) offset values for CG-UCI and the index signaledby higher layers may be in accordance with Table 5.

TABLE 5 Example of mapping between β_(offset) ^(G-UCI) and the higherlayer index I_(offset) ^(G-UCI) I_(offset) ^(G-UCI) β_(offset) ^(G-UCI) 0 1.000  1 2.000  2 2.500  3 3.125  4 4.000  5 5.000  6 6.250  7 8.000 8 10.000  9 12.625 10 15.875 11 20.000 12 31.000 13 50.000 14 80.000 15126.000 16 Reserved 17 Reserved 18 Reserved 19 Reserved 20 Reserved 21Reserved 22 Reserved 23 Reserved 24 Reserved 25 Reserved 26 Reserved 27Reserved 28 Reserved 29 Reserved 30 Reserved 31 Reserved

In some embodiments, β_(offset) ^(G-UCI) values may be the same as thosedefined in legacy NR for β_(offset) ^(CSI-1) and β_(offset) ^(CSI-2),and the mapping of β_(offset) ^(G-UCI) values for CG-UCI and the indexsignaled by higher layers may be in accordance with Table 6.

TABLE 6 Example of mapping between β_(offset) ^(G-UCI) and the higherlayer index I_(offset) ^(G-UCI) I_(offset) ^(G-UCI) β_(offset) ^(G-UCI) 0 1.125  1 1.250  2 1.375  3 1.625  4 1.750  5 2.000  6 2.250  7 2.500 8 2.875  9 3.125 10 3.500 11 4.000 12 5.000 13 6.250 14 8.000 15 10.00016 12.625 17 15.875 18 20.000 19 Reserved 20 Reserved 21 Reserved 22Reserved 23 Reserved 24 Reserved 25 Reserved 26 Reserved 27 Reserved 28Reserved 29 Reserved 30 Reserved 31 Reserved

In some embodiments, a new table may be defined. For instance, whileTable 6 may be reused, the reserved values may be substituted withhigher values. As one example, the values of table 7 can be used.

TABLE 7 β_(offset) ^(G-UCI) 10.000 12.625 15.875 20.000 31.000 50.00080.000 126.000

In some embodiments with respect to scrambling sequence for CG-UCI, auser specific sequence may be used to scramble both UL-SCH and theCG-UCI. A cell-specific sequence may be used for scrambling UL-SCH andthe CG-UCI, in which the cell-specific sequence may correspond to a cellidentity (ID) or a physical cell ID. The cell-specific sequence may beused to scramble CG-UCI, while a user-specific sequence may be used toscramble UL-SCH.

In some embodiments with respect to frequency hopping and mapping ofCG-UCI, if frequency hopping is enabled for CG UL transmission, the samemapping rules for CG-UCI and UL data may be used on each of thefrequency hops, which may or may not be the same as the mapping rule forthe case with disabled frequency hopping. When frequency hopping isenabled, different mapping rules may be applied on each of the frequencyhops.

In some embodiments with respect to UCI feedback, The UE generates andtransmits the UCI on a PUCCH or a PUSCH using one of a plurality ofPUCCH formats, where the particular PUCCH format used may depend on thenumber of configured serving cells and/or whether or not simultaneousPUSCH and PUCCH transmissions are configured.

If the UE is configured for a single serving cell and is not configuredfor simultaneous PUSCH and PUCCH transmissions, then in subframe n UCImay be transmitted on PUCCH using format 1/1a/1b/3 or 2/2a/2b if the UEis not transmitting PUSCH; or on PUSCH if the UE is transmitting PUSCHin subframe n unless the PUSCH transmission corresponds to a RandomAccess Response Grant or a retransmission of the same transport block aspart of the contention based random access procedure, in which case UCIis not transmitted

If the UE is configured for a single serving cell and simultaneous PUSCHand PUCCH transmission, then in subframe n UCI may be transmitted: onPUCCH using format 1/1a/1b/3 if the UCI includes only of HARQ-ACK and/orSR; on PUCCH using format 2 if the UCI includes only of periodic CSI; onPUCCH using format 2/2a/2b/3 if the UCI includes periodic CSI andHARQ-ACK and if the UE is not transmitting PUSCH; or on PUCCH and PUSCHif the UCI includes HARQ-ACK/HARQ-ACK+SR/positive SR andperiodic/aperiodic CSI and if the UE is transmitting PUSCH in subframen, in which case the HARQ-ACK/HARQ-ACK+SR/positive SR is transmitted onPUCCH using format 1/1a/1b/3 and the periodic/aperiodic CSI transmittedon PUSCH unless the PUSCH transmission corresponds to a Random AccessResponse Grant or a retransmission of the same transport block as partof the contention based random access procedure, in which caseperiodic/aperiodic CSI is not transmitted.

If the UE is configured with more than one serving cell and is notconfigured for simultaneous PUSCH and PUCCH transmission, then insubframe n UCI may be transmitted on PUCCH using format 1/1a/1b/3/4/5 or2/2a/2b if the UE is not transmitting PUSCH; on PUSCH of the servingcell if the UCI includes aperiodic CSI or aperiodic CSI and HARQ-ACK; onprimary cell PUSCH if the UCI includes periodic CSI and/or HARQ-ACK andif the UE is transmitting on the primary cell PUSCH in subframe n unlessthe primary cell PUSCH transmission corresponds to a Random AccessResponse Grant or a retransmission of the same transport block as partof the contention based random access procedure, in which case UCI isnot transmitted; or on PUSCH of the secondary cell with smallestSCellIndex if the UCI includes periodic CSI and/or HARQ-ACK and if theUE is not transmitting PUSCH on primary cell but is transmitting PUSCHon at least one secondary cell.

If the UE is configured with more than one serving cell and simultaneousPUSCH and PUCCH transmission, then in subframe n UCI may be transmittedon PUCCH using format 1/1a/1b/3 if the UCI includes only of HARQ-ACKand/or SR; on PUCCH using format 4/5 if the UCI includes only ofHARQ-ACK and/or SR and/or periodic CSI; on PUCCH using format 2 if theUCI includes only of periodic CSI corresponding to one serving cell; ifthe UCI includes periodic CSI and HARQ-ACK and if the UE is nottransmitting on PUSCH; on PUCCH and primary cell PUSCH if the UCIincludes HARQ-ACK and periodic CSI and the UE is transmitting PUSCH onthe primary cell, in which case the HARQ-ACK is transmitted on PUCCHusing format 1a/1b/3 and the periodic CSI is transmitted on PUSCH unlessthe primary cell PUSCH transmission corresponds to a Random AccessResponse Grant or a retransmission of the same transport block as partof the contention based random access procedure, in which case periodicCSI is not transmitted; on PUCCH and PUSCH of the secondary cell withthe smallest SCellIndex if the UCI includes HARQ-ACK and periodic CSIand if the UE is not transmitting PUSCH on primary cell but istransmitting PUSCH on at least one secondary cell, in which case, theHARQ-ACK is transmitted on PUCCH using format 1a/1b/3 and the periodicCSI is transmitted on PUSCH; and/or on PUCCH and PUSCH if the UCIincludes HARQ-ACK/HARQ-ACK+SR/positive SR and aperiodic CSI in whichcase the HARQ-ACK/HARQ-ACK+SR/positive SR is transmitted on PUCCH usingformat 1/1a/1b/3 and the aperiodic CSI is transmitted on PUSCH of theserving cell.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating components, according to someexample embodiments, able to read instructions from a machine-readableor computer-readable medium (for example, a non-transitorymachine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of themethodologies discussed herein. Specifically, FIG. 7 shows adiagrammatic representation of hardware resources 700 including one ormore processors (or processor cores) 710, one or more memory/storagedevices 720, and one or more communication resources 730, each of whichmay be communicatively coupled via a bus 740. For embodiments where nodevirtualization (for example, network function virtualization (NFV)) isutilized, a hypervisor 702 may be executed to provide an executionenvironment for one or more network slices/sub-slices to utilize thehardware resources 700.

The processors 710 (for example, a central processing unit (CPU), areduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complexinstruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit(GPU), a digital signal processor (DSP) such as a baseband processor, anapplication specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a radio-frequencyintegrated circuit (RFIC), another processor, or any suitablecombination thereof) may include, for example, a processor 712 and aprocessor 714.

The memory/storage devices 720 may include main memory, disk storage, orany suitable combination thereof. The memory/storage devices 720 mayinclude, but are not limited to, any type of volatile or non-volatilememory such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random-accessmemory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM),electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), Flashmemory, solid-state storage, etc.

The communication resources 730 may include interconnection or networkinterface components or other suitable devices to communicate with oneor more peripheral devices 704 or one or more databases 706 via anetwork 708. For example, the communication resources 730 may includewired communication components (for example, for coupling via aUniversal Serial Bus (USB)), cellular communication components, NFCcomponents, Bluetooth® components (for example, Bluetooth® Low Energy),Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components.

Instructions 750 may comprise software, a program, an application, anapplet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any of theprocessors 710 to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussedherein. For example, in an embodiment in which the hardware resources700 are implemented into the UE 105, the instructions 750 may cause theUE to perform some or all of the operation flow/algorithmic structure300. The instructions 750 may cause the UE to perform some or all of theG-UCI generation as well as mapping onto a PUSCH. In other embodiments,the hardware resources 700 may be implemented into the AN 110. Theinstructions 750 may cause the AN 110 to perform some or all of theoperation flow/algorithmic structure 305. The instructions 750 mayreside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processors710 (for example, within the processor's cache memory), thememory/storage devices 720, or any suitable combination thereof.Furthermore, any portion of the instructions 750 may be transferred tothe hardware resources 700 from any combination of the peripheraldevices 704 or the databases 706. Accordingly, the memory of processors710, the memory/storage devices 720, the peripheral devices 704, and thedatabases 706 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readablemedia.

FIG. 8 illustrates example interfaces of baseband circuitry inaccordance with some embodiments. As discussed above, the basebandcircuitry 204 of FIG. 2 may comprise processors 204A-204E and a memory204G utilized by said processors. The processors 204A-204E of the UE 105may perform some or all of the operation flow/algorithmic structure 300,in accordance with various embodiments. Alternatively or additionally,processors 204A-204E of the UE 105 may perform some or all of theoperation with respect to G-UCI in AUL transmission. The processors204A-204E of the AN 110 may perform some or all of the operationflow/algorithmic structure 305, in accordance with various embodiments.Each of the processors 204A-204E may include a memory interface,604A-604E, respectively, to send/receive data to/from the memory 204G.The processors 204A-204E of the UE 105 may be used to decode or processthe activation/deactivation DCI of AUL transmission, or the DFI-DCI withrespect to the AUL transmission; the processors 204A-204E of the AN 110may be used to generate the activation/deactivation DCI of AULtransmission, or the DFI-DCI with respect to the AUL transmission.

The baseband circuitry 204 may further include one or more interfaces tocommunicatively couple to other circuitries/devices, such as a memoryinterface 812 (e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from memoryexternal to the baseband circuitry 204), an application circuitryinterface 814 (for example, an interface to send/receive data to/fromthe application circuitry 202 of FIG. 2), an RF circuitry interface 816(for example, an interface to send/receive data to/from RF circuitry 206of FIG. 2), a wireless hardware connectivity interface 818 (for example,an interface to send/receive data to/from Near Field Communication (NFC)components, Bluetooth® components (for example, Bluetooth® Low Energy),Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components), and a powermanagement interface 820 (for example, an interface to send/receivepower or control signals).

Some non-limiting Examples of various embodiments are provided below.

Example 1 may include one or more non-transitory, computer-readablemedia (NTCRM) comprising instructions to, upon execution of theinstructions by one or more processors of a UE, cause the UE to: decodedownlink control information (DCI) to indicate an activation or adeactivation of a configured grant (CG) uplink (UL) transmission for theUE; and generate, based on the decoded DCI, an acknowledgement messageto indicate a reception of the activation or deactivation of the CG ULtransmission.

Example 2 may include the one or more NTCRM of example 1 and/or someother example herein, wherein the DCI is transmitted in a new radio (NR)Layer 1 (L1) message from a next-generation NodeB (gNB), and theactivation or deactivation of the CG UL transmission is based on aType-2 configured grant in NR.

Example 3 may include the one or more NTCRM of example 1 and/or someother example herein, wherein a DCI format 0_0 or a DCI format 0_1 isused to indicate the activation or deactivation of the GC ULtransmission.

Example 4 may include the one or more NTCRM of example 3 and/or someother example herein, wherein the instructions, when executed, furthercause the UE to: determine, based at least in part on anidentifier-for-DCI-formats area of the DCI format 0 0 or the DCI format0_1, a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) area and a resource blockassignment area, whether the activation or deactivation DCI is anactivation DCI or a deactivation DCI.

Example 5 may include the one or more NTCRM of example 4 and/or someother example herein, wherein the activation or deactivation DCI isconfigured according to Table 2(a) and Table 2(b).

Example 6 may include the one or more NTCRM of example 3 and/or someother example herein, wherein, upon execution, the instructions furthercause the UE to determine, based on an identifier-for-DCI-formats areaof the DCI format 0 0 or the DCI format 0 1, the DCI is used to indicatea downlink feedback information (DFI)-DCI for a hybrid automatic repeatrequest (HARQ) feedback with respect to the GC UL transmission.

Example 7 may include the one or more NTCRM of example 6 and/or someother example herein, wherein the DFI-DCI indicates one or more items ofinformation: Bitmap with one HARQ-Acknowledgement (ACK) bit per CGconfigured HARQ process per TB (Z bits per TB, wherein Z is the totalnumber of HARQ process IDs, e.g., Z=16), Transmit Power Control (TPC)command for PUSCH (2 bits), modulation and coding scheme (5 bits),carrier indicator (if format 0_1 is used), Bandwidth part indicator (ifformat 0_1 is used), antenna ports (if format 0_1 is used), and DMRSsequence initialization (if format 0_1 is used)

Example 8 may include the one or more NTCRM of example 6 and/or someother example herein, wherein, upon execution, the instructions furthercause the UE to generate a HARQ-acknowledgement (ACK) feedback based onthe decoded DFI-DCI.

Example 9 may include the one or more NTCRM of example 1 and/or someother example herein, wherein the acknowledgement message to indicatethe reception of the activation of CG UL transmission includes one ormore medium access control (MAC) control elements (CEs) to indicate oneor more values of a logic channel identification (LCD).

Example 10 may include the one or more NTCRM of example 1 and/or someother example herein, wherein, upon execution, the instructions furthercause the UE to transmit the acknowledgement message via a scheduledgrant uplink transmission.

Example 11 may include the one or more NTCRM of example 1 and/or someother example herein, wherein, upon execution, the instructions furthercause the UE to determine not to generate the acknowledgement message toindicate a reception of the deactivation of CG UL transmission, based onan indication of the deactivation of the CG UL transmission upondecoding the DCI.

Example 12 may include one or more non-transitory, computer-readablemedia (NTCRM) comprising instructions to, upon execution of theinstructions by one or more processors of a gNB, cause the gNB togenerate downlink control information (DCI) to indicate an activation ora deactivation of a configured grant (CG) UL transmission for a userequipment (UE).

Example 13 may include the one or more NTCRM of example 12 and/or someother example herein, wherein, upon execution, the instructions furthercause the gNB to transmit the DCI in a new radio (NR) Layer 1 (L1)message.

Example 14 may include the one or more NTCRM of example 13 and/or someother example herein, wherein, upon execution, the instructions furthercause the gNB to indicate one or more frequency resources for the CG ULtransmission in the activation or deactivation DCI.

Example 15 may include the one or more NTCRM of example 13 and/or someother example herein, wherein, upon execution, the instructions furthercause the gNB to indicate one or more time resources for the CG ULtransmission in the activation or deactivation DCI.

Example 16 may include the one or more NTCRM of example 13 and/or someother example herein, wherein, upon execution, the instructions furthercause the gNB to generate a radio resource control (RRC) message togrant the CG UL transmission, wherein the RRC message indicates one ormore frequency resources and corresponding time resources for the CG ULtransmission for a Type 2 CG.

Example 17 may include the one or more NTCRM of example 13 and/or someother example herein, wherein, upon execution, the instructions furthercause the gNB to generate a downlink feedback information (DFI)-DCImessage to the UE for a hybrid automatic repeat request(HARQ)-acknowledgement (ACK) feedback with respect to the CG ULtransmission.

Example 18 may include the one or more NTCRM of example 13 and/or someother example herein, wherein, upon execution, the instructions furthercause the gNB to generate a downlink feedback information (DFI)-DCImessage to the UE for a hybrid automatic repeat request(HARQ)-acknowledgement (ACK) feedback to schedule the CG UL transmissionfor the UE.

Example 19 may include the one or more NTCRM of examples 17 and 18and/or some other example herein, wherein the activation or deactivationDCI and the DFI-DCI have the same size.

Example 20 may include the one or more NTCRM of example 13 and/or someother example herein, wherein, upon execution, the instructions furthercause the gNB to start a timer upon transmitting the activation ordeactivation DCI.

Example 21 may include the one or more NTCRM of example 20 and/or someother example herein, wherein, upon execution, the instructions furthercause the gNB to reset the timer upon receiving an acknowledgementmessage to indicate a reception of the activation or deactivation of CGUL transmission.

Example 21 may include the one or more NTCRM of example 20 and/or someother example herein, wherein, upon execution, the instructions furthercause the gNB to re-transmit the activation or deactivation DCI upon anexpiration of the timer.

Example 22 may include one or more non-transitory, computer-readablemedia (NTCRM) comprising instructions to, upon execution of theinstructions by one or more processors of a UE, cause the UE to generateconfigured grant-uplink control information (CG-UCI) with respect to anCG uplink (UL) transmission, wherein the CG-UCI indicates a remainingchannel occupancy time (COT) is shared with the gNB, and a number ofresources to be used for an uplink to downlink maximum COT (MCOT)sharing; and map the CG-UCI onto a physical uplink shared channel(PUSCH) for transmission.

Example 23 may include the one or more NTCRM of example 22 and/or someother example herein, wherein the CG-UCI includes a hybrid automaticrepeat request (HARQ) process identifier (ID), a redundancy version(RV), a new data indicator (NDI), a PUSCH starting symbol to indicate astarting position of the PUSCH or whether a first symbol of a currentslot is punctured, and a PUSCH ending symbol to indicate an endingposition of the PUSCH or whether a last symbol of the current slot ispunctured.

Example 24 may include the one or more NTCRM of example 22 and/or someother example herein, wherein to map the CG-UCI onto the PUSCH is tomultiplex the CG-UCI with uplink shared channel (UL-SCH) onto the PUSCH,wherein the UL-SCH is rate matched across the CG-UCI and the CG-UCI ismapped within each CG PUSCH transmission.

Example 25 may include the one or more NTCRM of example 24 and/or someother example herein, wherein to map the CG-UCI onto the PUSCH is basedon one or more rules with respect to FIGS. 4-6.

Example 26 may include the one or more NTCRM of example 22 and/or someother example herein, wherein a number of coded modulation symbols perlayer for CG-UCI transmission can be evaluated as follows:

$Q_{G - {{UCI\_}1}}^{\prime} = {\min\left\{ {\left\lceil \frac{\left( {O_{G - {UCI}} + L_{G - {UCI}}} \right) \cdot \beta_{offset}^{G - {UCI}} \cdot {\sum\limits_{l = 0}^{N_{{symb},{all}}^{PUSCH} - 1}{M_{sc}^{UCI}(l)}}}{\sum\limits_{r = 0}^{C_{{UL} - {SCH}^{- 1}}}K_{r}} \right\rceil,\mspace{20mu}\left\lceil {\alpha \cdot {\sum\limits_{l = l_{0}}^{N_{{symb},{all}}^{PUSCH} - 1}{M_{sc}^{UCI}(l)}}} \right\rceil} \right\}}$  and/or  by$Q_{G - {{UCI\_}2}}^{\prime} = {\min\left\{ {\left\lceil \frac{\left( {O_{G - {UCI} - 2} + L_{G - {UCI}}} \right)\beta_{offset}^{G - {UCI}}{\sum\limits_{l = 0}^{N_{{symb},{all}}^{PUSCH} - 1}{M_{sc}^{UCI}(l)}}}{\sum\limits_{r = 0}^{C_{{UL} - {SCH} - 1}}K_{r}} \right\rceil,\mspace{40mu}{\left\lceil {\alpha \cdot {\sum\limits_{l = l_{0}}^{N_{{symb},{all}}^{PUSCH} - 1}{M_{sc}^{UCI}(l)}}} \right\rceil - Q_{G - {{UCI\_}1}}^{\prime}}} \right\}}$

wherein, O_(C-UCI_1) is a number of CG-UCI bits, O_(C-UCI_2) is a numberof CG-UCI bits mapped into the CSI part 2 REs, L_(G-UCI) indicates anumber of cyclic redundancy check (CRC) bits for the CG-UCI, β_(offset)^(G-UCI) is an offset value of the CG-UCI, M_(SC) ^(UCI) is a number ofresource elements that is to be used for UCI transmission, N_(symb,all)^(PUSCH) is a total number of OFDM symbols for the PUSCH, C_(UL-SCH) isa number of code blocks for UL-SCH of the PUSCH transmission, K_(r) isan r-th code block size for an uplink shared channel (UL-SCH) of thePUSCH transmission, M_(SC) ^(UCI) is a number of resource elements thatmay be used for CG-UCI transmission in an OFDM symbol l, and l=0, 1, 2,. . . , N_(symb,all) ^(PUSCH)−1 in the PUSCH transmission.

Example 27 may include the one or more NTCRM of example 26 and/or someother G-UCI example herein, wherein the β_(offset) ^(G-UCI) determinedby a radio resource control (RRC) signaling for a Type 1 CG ULconfiguration.

Example 28 may include the one or more NTCRM of example 27 and/or someother example herein, wherein the β_(offset) ^(G-UCI) is determined byan indication of an activation downlink control information (DCI) toindicate a β_(offset) value based on a set of β_(offset) values that areavailable for the CG-UCI, for a Type 2 AUL configuration.

Example 29 may include one or more non-transitory, computer-readablemedia (NTCRM) comprising instructions to, upon execution of theinstructions by one or more processors of a gNB, cause the gNB togenerate a message, to a user equipment (UE), to indicate an offsetvalue with respect to configured grant-uplink control information(CG-UCI) for a configured grant (CG) uplink (UL) transmission operatingin an unlicensed spectrum; and decode the CG-UCI.

Example 30 may include the one or more NTCRM of example 29 and/or someother example herein, wherein, upon execution, the instructions furtherto cause the gNB to transmit the message in activation downlink controlinformation (DCI).

Example 31 may include the one or more NTCRM of example 30 and/or someother example herein, wherein, upon execution, the instructions furtherto cause the gNB to transmit the message in a higher layer signaling.

Example 32 may include an apparatus comprising means to perform one ormore elements of a method or NTCRM described in or related to any ofexamples 1-31, or any other method or process described herein.

Example 33 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readablemedia comprising instructions to cause an electronic device, uponexecution of the instructions by one or more processors of theelectronic device, to perform one or more elements of a method or NTCRMdescribed in or related to any of examples 1-31, or any other method orprocess described herein.

Example 34 may include an apparatus comprising logic, modules, and/orcircuitry to perform one or more elements of a method or NTCRM describedin or related to any of examples 1-31, or any other method or processdescribed herein.

Example 35 may include a method, technique, or process as described inor related to any of examples 1-31, or portions or parts thereof

Example 36 may include an apparatus comprising: one or more processorsand one or more computer-readable media comprising instructions that,when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or moreprocessors to perform the method, techniques, or process as described inor related to any of examples 1-31, or portions thereof

The present disclosure is described with reference to flowchartillustrations or block diagrams of methods, apparatuses (systems) andcomputer program products according to embodiments of the disclosure. Itwill be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations orblock diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchartillustrations or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer programinstructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to aprocessor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, orother programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, suchthat the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computeror other programmable data processing apparatus, create means forimplementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart or blockdiagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in acomputer-readable medium that can direct a computer or otherprogrammable data processing apparatus to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readablemedium produce an article of manufacture including instruction meansthat implement the function/act specified in the flowchart or blockdiagram block or blocks.

The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer orother programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series ofoperational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmableapparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that theinstructions that execute on the computer or other programmableapparatus provide processes for implementing the functions/actsspecified in the flowchart or block diagram block or blocks.

The description herein of illustrated implementations, including what isdescribed in the Abstract, is not intended to be exhaustive or to limitthe present disclosure to the precise forms disclosed. While specificimplementations and examples are described herein for illustrativepurposes, a variety of alternate or equivalent embodiments orimplementations calculated to achieve the same purposes may be made inlight of the above detailed description, without departing from thescope of the present disclosure, as those skilled in the relevant artwill recognize.

What is claimed is:
 1. One or more non-transitory, computer-readablemedia (NTCRM) comprising instructions that, when executed by one or moreprocessors, cause a base station to: receive configured grant-uplinkcontrol information (CG-UCI) that includes a channel occupancy time(COT) sharing indication; determine, based on the COT sharingindication, a portion of a COT acquired by a user equipment (UE) isavailable for downlink transmissions to the UE; and transmit downlinkdata to the UE.
 2. The one or more NTCRM of claim 1, wherein theinstructions, further cause the base station to receive the CG-UCI in aphysical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission.
 3. The one or moreNTCRM of claim 1, wherein the CG-UCI includes a hybrid automatic repeatrequest (HARQ) process identifier.
 4. The one or more NTCRM of claim 3,wherein the HARQ process identifier comprises four bits.
 5. The one ormore NTCRM of claim 1, wherein the CG-UCI includes a redundancy version(RV) identifier.
 6. The one or more NTCRM of claim 5, wherein the RVidentifier comprises two bits.
 7. The one or more NTCRM of claim 1,wherein the CG-UCI includes a new data indicator (NDI).
 8. The one ormore NTCRM of claim 7, wherein the NDI comprises one bit.
 9. The one ormore NTCRM of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, furthercause the base station to determine that downlink data directed to theUE is permitted in the portion of the COT and that downlink datadirected to any UE other than the UE is not permitted in the portion ofthe COT.
 10. A method of operating a user equipment (UE), the methodcomprising: acquiring a channel for a channel occupancy time (COT);transmitting, to a base station based on acquiring the channel,configured grant-uplink control information (CG-UCI) that includes achannel occupancy time (COT) sharing indication to indicate a portion ofthe COT is available to the base station for transmissions; andreceiving, within the portion of the COT, downlink data from the basestation.
 11. The method of claim 10, further comprising: transmittingthe CG-UCI on a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH).
 12. The methodof claim 10, wherein the CG-UCI includes a four-bit hybrid automaticrepeat request (HARQ) process identifier.
 13. The method of claim 10,wherein the CG-UCI includes a two-bit redundancy version (RV)identifier.
 14. The method of claim 10, wherein the CG-UCI includes aone-bit new data indicator (NDI).
 15. The method of claim 10, whereindownlink data directed to the UE is permitted in the portion of the COTand downlink data directed to any UE other than the UE is not permittedin the portion of the COT.
 16. A base station comprising: memory tostore a configured grant (CG) offset value to be used to multiplexCG-uplink control information (CG-UCI) with uplink shared channel(UL-SCH) data into a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmissionin an unlicensed spectrum; and processing circuitry coupled with thememory, the processing circuitry to: generate a message, to a userequipment (UE), to include an indication of the CG offset value; anddecode the CG-UCI received from the UE.
 17. The base station of claim16, wherein the message is transmitted by radio resource control (RRC)signaling.
 18. The base station of claim 16, wherein the message istransmitted by downlink control information.
 19. The base station ofclaim 16, wherein the UL-SCH data is rate matched around the CG-UCI inthe PUSCH transmission.
 20. The base station of claim 16, wherein anumber of coded modulation symbols per layer for the CG-UCI is evaluatedbased on:$Q_{G - {{UCI\_}1}}^{\prime} = {\min\left\{ {\left\lceil \frac{\left( {O_{G - {UCI}} + L_{G - {UCI}}} \right) \cdot \beta_{offset}^{G - {UCI}} \cdot {\sum\limits_{l = 0}^{N_{{symb},{all}}^{PUSCH} - 1}{M_{sc}^{UCI}(l)}}}{\sum\limits_{r = 0}^{C_{{UL} - {SCH}^{- 1}}}K_{r}} \right\rceil,\mspace{20mu}\left\lceil {\alpha \cdot {\sum\limits_{l = l_{0}}^{N_{{symb},{all}}^{PUSCH} - 1}{M_{sc}^{UCI}(l)}}} \right\rceil} \right\}}$wherein, O_(G-UCI) is a number of CG-UCI bits, L_(G-UCI) indicates anumber of cyclic redundancy check (CRC) bits for the CG-UCI, β_(offset)^(G-UCI) is an offset value of the CG-UCI, M_(sc) ^(UCI) is a number ofresource elements that is to be used for the CG-UCI, N_(symb,all)^(PUSCH) is a total number of OFDM symbols for the PUSCH transmission,C_(UL-SCH) is a number of code blocks for the UL-SCH data of the PUSCHtransmission, K_(r) is an r-th code block size for the UL-SCH data ofthe PUSCH transmission, and M_(sc) ^(UCI) is a number of resourceelements that is to be used for CG-UCI in an OFDM symbol l, and l=0, 1,2, . . . , N_(symb,all) ^(PUSCH)−1 in the PUSCH transmission.